Wednesday, April 5, 2017

Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Examine Your Happiness"


We often hear the Buddha talking about how the five aggregates are stressful because they’re inconstant, and as a result we’re taught not to identify with them, but there are levels of the teaching where the Buddha says you don’t focus on that yet. You focus instead on the fact that some aspects of form, feeling, perception, mental fabrication, and consciousness are actually pleasant, and you want to pursue them for that pleasure.
There’s the pleasure of the precepts, the pleasure of generosity, both of which are conditioned things. There’s a pleasure in concentration, which is also conditioned, and you want to motivate yourself to look for that to provide you with nourishment on the path. If you just go ahead and say, “Well, everything is inconstant, stressful, and not self, so let’s just go beyond the concentration and move on to the next step, not bother with working on the concentration,” that just short-circuits the path. It starves the path. You’re gaining training in happiness, you’re gaining sensitivity in what it means to experience well-being, so that you’ll be able to recognize the ultimate well-being when it comes." ~ 

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